''Sphagneticola trilobata'', commonly known as the Bay Biscayne creeping-oxeye, merigold Singapore daisy, creeping-oxeye, trailing daisy, and wedelia, is a plant in the tribe

Heliantheae The Heliantheae (sometimes called the sunflower tribe) are the third-largest tribe in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). With some 190 genera and nearly 2500 recognized species, only the tribes Senecioneae and Astereae are larger. The name is de ...

of the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

. It is native to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, but now grows throughout the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...

. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental groundcover.

Description

Spreading, mat-forming perennial herb up to 30 cm in height. Has rounded stems up to 40 cm long, rooting at nodes and with the flowering stems ascending. Leaves are fleshy, hairy, 4–9 cm long and 2–5 cm wide, serrate or irregularly toothed, normally with pairs of lateral lobes, and dark green above and lighter green below. Its surface is hairy or glabrous, rarely scaly.

Inflorescence

Peduncles are 3–10 cm long; involucres are campanulate to hemispherical, about 1 cm high; chaffy bracts are lanceolate, rigid. The flowers are bright yellow ray florets of about 8-13 per head, rays are 6–15 mm long; disk-corollas 4–5 mm long. The pappus is a crown of short fimbriate scales. The seeds are tuberculate

achenes An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...

, 4–5 mm long. Propagation is mostly vegetatively as seeds are usually not fertile. In the tropics it is free-flowering, and elsewhere it blooms mostly from spring to autumn.

Habitat

It has a very wide ecological tolerance range, but grows best in sunny areas with well-drained, moist soil at low elevations.

Invasive species

''Sphagneticola trilobata'' is listed in the IUCN's “

List of the world's 100 worst invasive species 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species is a list of invasive species compiled in 2014 by the Global Invasive Species Database, a database of invasive species around the world. The database is run by the Invasive Species Specialist Group (I ...

”. It is

spread Spread may refer to: Places * Spread, West Virginia Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Spread'' (film), a 2009 film. * ''$pread'', a quarterly magazine by and for sex workers * "Spread", a song by OutKast from their 2003 album ''Speakerboxxx/T ...

by people as an ornamental or groundcover that is planted in gardens, where it can

escape Escape or Escaping may refer to: Computing * Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation ** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...

to surrounding areas by dumping of garden waste. It spreads vegetatively, not by seed. It rapidly forms a dense ground cover, crowding away and preventing other plant species from regenerating. This species is widely available as an ornamental and is therefore likely to spread further. It is a noxious weed in agricultural land, along roadsides urban waste places and other disturbed sites. It is also invasive along streams, canals, along the borders of mangrove swamps and in coastal vegetation. It is widespread as an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

on the

Pacific Islands Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of se ...

, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.

Gallery

File:Sphagneticola trilobata in Singapore.jpg, Sphagneticola trilobata in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. File:Creeping Daisy or Yellow dots (Wedelia trilobata) at Lotus Pond, Hyderabad, AP W IMG 7641.jpg, In

Hyderabad, India Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the '' de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern In ...

. File:Wedelia trilobata.jpg, In

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

File:Creeping Daisy or Yellow dots (Wedelia trilobata) at Lotus Pond, Hyderabad, AP W IMG 7640.jpg, In

. File:Sphagneticola trilobata in Nigeria 2.jpg, In Nigeria Sphagneticola trilobata at Elmina West in Seksyen U15, Shah Alam 20231126 102624.jpg, ''S. trilobata'' in

Shah Alam Shah Alam () is a city and the state capital of Selangor, Malaysia and situated within the Petaling District and a small portion of the neighbouring Klang District. Shah Alam replaced Kuala Lumpur as the capital city of the state of Selangor in ...

, Malaysia

References

External links

Plants.usda.gov

Austrop.org.au
* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2707027 Heliantheae Flora of Central America Flora of the Caribbean Flora of northern South America Flora of Bolivia Flora of Brazil Flora of Colombia Flora of Ecuador Flora of Peru Flora of Mexico Invasive plant species in Sri Lanka Invasive plant species in Japan Flora without expected TNC conservation status